What is the new Stopped Vehicle Alerts feature? #

Stopped Vehicle Alerts is an exciting new Drivewyze Safety+ feature. There are two components to Stopped Vehicle Alerts:
i. The detection of a vehicle stopped in a hazardous location, which is available to Safety+ subscribers.
ii. And the alert that goes out to approaching drivers to let them know there is a stopped vehicle up ahead. This alert is included for Drivewyze Free and Drivewyze Safety+ subscribers.

Why is it important to provide alerts about Stopped Vehicles? #

Sometimes drivers need to pull over and park on the shoulder of the road or ramp to address an issue in an emergency (e.g. blown tire). Due to the size of the vehicle, it might be partially in the driving lane, which can lead to accidents for approaching drivers that aren’t paying close attention. In 2020, there were over 200 fatal crashes involving large trucks due to hazardous parking along highways (FMCSA Large Truck and Bus Crash Facts, 2020). On US roadways, there are approximately 1.6 deaths and 40 injuries per day from disabled vehicles, costing $8.8B annually (Frequency and Cost of Crashes, Fatalities and Injuries Involving Disabled Vehicles, 2021). When we speak to customers, they tell us this is a growing area of concern given the trend in nuclear verdicts, and it’s a problem that Drivewyze can help solve.

How does Drivewyze know that a vehicle is stopped in a hazardous location? #

There are a few steps in this process to trigger a Stopped Vehicle Alert:

• Drivewyze can detect when a vehicle has stopped by using GPS data from the device.
• If a vehicle stops for more than 10 minutes on a highway, the system checks whether the other traffic on the road is still moving by accessing live traffic data.
• If the other traffic is still moving and all the conditions listed above are met, then a Stopped Vehicle Alert is triggered.
• The driver in the stopped vehicle is notified a minute before the event is activated.
• Once active, approaching drivers approximately 1 mile behind the stopped vehicle will be notified about the hazard up ahead.

What happens when the vehicle starts moving again? #

Drivewyze will detect that the vehicle is moving and once it reaches 30mph, the Stopped Vehicle Alert will be automatically deactivated. The driver does not need to interact with the device.

How will a fleet user know which vehicles are stopping in hazardous locations causing Stopped Vehicle Alerts to be triggered? #

Safety+ subscribers will see a new report added in the Drivewyze Hub portal. The report is called Stopped Vehicle Detail and provides information about which vehicles were stopped, when the event occurred, who the driver was, the location of the stop, and the duration. You can also see how many other approaching vehicles were notified about the stop. This report can be used to identify drivers who repeatedly stop in hazardous locations and could therefore benefit from some coaching about safe places to stop.

The duration of the stop helps users to identify whether drivers are attempting to take a rest break or hours of service reset in a risky location. In these cases, the coaching could be focused on planning for rest breaks rather than maximizing distance traveled.

Will users also be able to see if any drivers in their fleet received alerts that there is a Stopped Vehicle up ahead?

Yes, these alerts will appear as visit records in the usual visit reports in Hub:

i. Site Visits

ii. Vehicle Summary

iii. Driver Summary

iv. Risk Zone Summary

There is also the option to filter the reports to view Stopped Vehicle Alerts specifically:

Stopped Vehicle alerts in the Site Visits report can be used to demonstrate how many potential collisions were avoided due to the alert.

Can Drivewyze notify a fleet’s maintenance crew that they have a disabled vehicle as soon as it happens? #

Not currently, but this is planned as a future enhancement that enables Drivewyze Hub users to designate an email address and/or a mobile device to send real-time notifications when a Stopped Vehicle event occurs.

What if a driver stops in a location that the fleet believes is safe, but Drivewyze triggered the Stopped Vehicle Alert for the location? #

The customer should let us know if this happens. The Safety+ stop detection logic focuses on highway travel and looks for stops within 10 meters of the highway. We also use OpenStreetMap as a reference to recognize and exclude stops in rest areas, gas stations, service stations, and service roads. If the user disagrees with Drivewyze’s classification of a hazardous location, we will investigate and designate the area as safe for subsequent stops at that location. In a future release, users will have the ability in the Drivewyze Hub portal to designate a location as safe for stops.

What if the driver turns off the device during a Stopped Vehicle event? #

Every Stopped Vehicle event automatically times out after 4 hours to prevent other drivers receiving caution alerts about a Stopped Vehicle that may no longer be where the event started. If the event is terminated after 4 hours by Drivewyze due to a lost device connection, the Stopped Vehicle Detail report in Hub will show “Lost Connection” as the Ended By value.

Will the price of Safety+ remain the same after this new feature is added? #

The list price of Safety+ is not changing. If fleets with 25+ trucks would like to negotiate a lower rate for Safety+, there is the option to exclude the Stopped Vehicle Alerts feature from the package so that a lower rate can be offered. If the fleet would like Stopped Vehicle Alerts included, then the list price for Safety+ will be charged. Instructions for turning off the Stopped Vehicle Alerts for a fleet can be found in the Appendix.

How does the Stopped Vehicle Alerts feature get enabled? #

Stopped Vehicle Alerts will be automatically added for all existing Safety+ subscribers on launch day. Stopped Vehicle Alerts will also be automatically enabled for any new Safety+ activation going forward. There is a new vehicle level subscription in DSP called “Stopped Vehicle Alert”.

How can Stopped Vehicle Alert detection be disabled if a Safety+ fleet doesn’t want it? #

For fleets who decide they do not want to use the Stopped Vehicle detection, the feature must be disabled via DSP.

What if a fleet does not want to receive alerts about a stopped vehicle up ahead? #

Alerts about a stopped vehicle up ahead can be enabled and disabled in the same way as the other Drivewyze Free alerts, via the Alerts & Advisories section under Fleet Settings in Hub:

Is this feature available to all partners and on all devices? #

Stopped Vehicle Alerts is available on any device capable of supporting Safety alerts, but there are some differences in the functionality from partner to partner. Appendix A shows the differences between the stop detection screens for each partner. The main difference is that drivers on devices with SDK versions older than 2.x do not have the ability to manually deactivate a Stopped Vehicle event. On all versions of the SDK/app, tap-to-dismiss works on every alert screen.

Do Drivewyze Mobile users need to upgrade their mobile version to use this feature? #

There is a new version of the Android app that provides some additional functionality, but the feature can still be used by drivers on older versions of the Android app. With the new app version 5.1.4, drivers can manually trigger a Stopped Vehicle Event if they are stopped in a hazardous location, and they can manually end the event too. Appendix C shows how the mobile app home screen differs between versions. There is no change to the iOS Drivewyze app.